Egypt’s Library of Alexandria
In a guest editorial published in the 8/8/08 issue of Science, the magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Director of Egypt’s Library of Alexandria, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, states:
“Throughout the Muslim world we are witnessing an increasingly intolerant social milieu that is driven by self-appointed guardians of religious … Continue Reading »
On July 31, researchers at MIT announced a “revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source. Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun.”
Funded in part by a $10 million grant from … Continue Reading »
It was the wrong season for whales. It was the wrong month for sea lions. The gulls only tolerated me and to be true, I enjoyed them only within my limited fascination for the inexplicable red spot on their yellow beaks. For the first 20 minutes, a lone brown pelican held my … Continue Reading »
An excited correspondent sent me a link to this video of an elephant painting a picture of an elephant.
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It is an engaging video, and comments on other websites from eyewitnesses (most often reporting their visits to Thailand) to such “artwork creation” give good evidence that this is not a fraud. The elephant is actually … Continue Reading »
By missing their last shot, tenth-seeded Davidson lost to top-seeded Kansas 59-57…and for the first time in NCAA tournament history, all four #1 seeds made it to the Final Four.
What are the odds of that happening?
My assumptions are arbitrary—I admit that—but here’s the math.
Assume that the #1 seed is is X percent better than the … Continue Reading »
Today my four-year-old Mac G4 laptop began acting its age.
Groups of pixels jittered chaotically in horizontal regiments, sometimes covering the screen. Then, without anodyne application, the problem would disappear. And just as unpredictably, reappear. Further investigation revealed that these video measles increased or decreased as a function of manual pressure exerted on … Continue Reading »
When Richard Feynman came back to Ojai’s Summer Science Program for a second, unscheduled visit, his topic was what he called “smallness.” Today that field, in which he was a visionary, is called Nanotechnology.
Having been mesmerized by Feynman’s brilliance and wit during his talk on Relativity a couple of weeks earlier, we 36 science/math nerds … Continue Reading »
Richard Feynman at Summer Science Program
In 1960, I sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, my feet thrust out, listening to Caltech’s Richard Feynman explain Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Einstein, dead for only five years, was an icon and a Nobel Laureate. I was too young and unread then to know … Continue Reading »
Today is Leap Day. We add this extra day in February if the year is evenly divisible by four. That’s once every four years. Right?
Wrong.
Hidden behind a fishing boat, a strange craft is silently lowered into the water. The inventor, David Bushnell, has named it “Turtle” because of its shape…and because it is a submarine. It carries a single bomb and its mission is sabotage.
A thin young man named Ezra Lee hands Bushnell a final letter for … Continue Reading »
